It's good to talk!

Another early start this morning- we had a breakfast meeting over at Hinckley Baptist Church. Every few months, our local 'cluster' of Baptist Churches meet up for breakfast, to share news and pray. At our last meeting, a few months back, the folk from HBC shared that their building work was complete, the new hall finished, but they had run out of money for equipping the kitchen in their new "Pathways" Centre.

Someone at that meeting had connections with the Catering Trade - and so helped get everything at a very good price. Today we met to celebrate that we had prayed and God had answered.

Here is the Hall where we ate, and the very professional kitchen where the breakfast was cooked.

Liz and Matt did a splendid job and there was plenty to eat.[even for those of us sticking to Low GI, low fat food]

We watched a brief presentation about our link missionaries in Peru, the Williamson Family. Scott's blog is fabulous and full of great pictures and up to date information.

After that, we returned to KMFC for a Macmillan Coffee Morning - run by Alyson and Sue. I drank the coffee, but resisted the Chocolate Cake.

Came home with a huge bag of windfall apples from Betty, which have been peeled and stewed and are ready for the freezer.

It is a beautiful, sunny, autumn day here.

I hope the rest of Half Term is as good!

Fun Filled Friday

Today marked the last day of my full week's teaching. I am not doing that again in a hurry! [at least, not in a week when I have meetings every evening as well] I am utterly exhausted.

Because it is half term now [Hallelujah!] my colleagues needed to get some planning done. So this afternoon, they planned and I sat with the year group to watch a scientific film.

As we have been studying the life cycle of plants, pollination etc, we watched Bee Movie. It is really clever and enormous fun- AND covers all the science stuff well.

You can find out lots more about it at the Official Bee Movie Website.

I have enjoyed my week with the Year 5's and they were great fun to work with.

High points -

1. A parent coming up to me this morning, and saying SHE  can spell RHYTHM for the first time in her life.
2. Three girls waiting at the end of the day to thank me for being their supply teacher for a week.

Low points -

1. Being presented with some lilies on Tuesday, which we were supposed to observe through a magnifying glass - but the flowers refused to open till last night - so I had to keep re-arranging when we would do our science observation.
2. Walking into a desk on Monday morning and bashing my leg very hard. I now have a bruise on my thigh about 8cm in diameter [no kidding] which looks like a black and purple relief map of Jersey!

Now to start planning for the weekend - and then next week's trip to Yorkshire. But first some supper, I think!

Poetry in Motion

It's Wednesday, so I am over halfway through my week of teaching. I wish it had not been a week with so many evening activities, but these things cannot be helped. I got up really early and put some bolognaise sauce in the Slow Cooker so that we would have a meal ready later.

We had fun today with our poetry -  we started with From a Railway Carriage by R L Stevenson, then I read W H Auden's Night Mail.

We talked about what could be sen from a railway carriage, and then the class wrote poems about a journey into Leicester on the Park'n'Ride. [Poor deprived things - they don't ever get the chance to go on train journeys!]

At the end of the lesson, I showed them the GPO film [You can watch it here] of Auden's Poem.

The kids adored the rhythms and patterns of language - and at the end one child declared the film was "Well Cool" and another said her Grandad used to work on trains, putting coal into the engine!

Then this afternoon,as many of the Year Group were doing some singing, I had the "remnant" - so we looked at "The Owl and the Pussycat" and made illustrated mini-books.

Yet again, they could not believe anyone could learn poems by heart!

I also taught them Steph's mnemonic for spelling

"RHYTHM" -it

Really

Helps

Your

Two

Hips

Move

[Thanks for that, dear daughter!]

Straight after school, another funeral - then spag bol for tea - and then Sewing Club. The girls were all really sparky and enthusiastic tonight and the pile of items for their charity sale is beginning to build up.

I am totally exhausted, but feel very contented at the end of a long day of teaching, at school and then at church. I think an early night is in order.

Are we nearly there yet?

Sometimes life seems unbelievably non-stop. The last few days [OK Bob, most of the last 30 years] have felt a bit like that.

After the amazing day that was last Thursday, Friday was full of planning and preparation and stuff - SO good to have Steph at home, helping me. Then Saturday we were woken at 5.50am [alarm was set for 6 anyway] by a phone call from Liz, who was ill in London. Fortunately all was OK in the end, and she's fine now.

I went off to the Baptist Association Day in Heanor [great devotions, Julie, thanks. I see why you needed 3 candles now - but you could always have picked some up en route at IKEA!]

Felt slightly guilty that my seminar was about not treating the family in the Manse as Unpaid Curates, when I had left Steph and Mark [on his first ever trip to Kirby Muxloe] preparing lunch and also making popcorn for the Family Service!

In the afternoon we persuaded Bob to stop work for a bit too, and we went for a stroll round Bradgate Park, which was looking wonderfully autumnal. The tea in the Jade Tea Rooms was lovely too.

Then in the evening, it was back to church for the Cliff As If... concert. That was amazing. He is SO good and

he DOES look - and sound - like Cliff. More pictures on the website here.

The audience loved it - especially the lady behind me, who was positively swooning!

It was not just all the fun songs though - the gospel was presented clearly too. I was thrilled to read Will's comments on his blog today;

"Just one other note, the Kirby Muxloe gig on Saturday evening was I feel the best show I have done so far. It sounded great, the audience were amazing (a full house), and I had two encores!"

Sunday was busy, but fun - a Family Service about Anger, using a number of film clips. I wasn't altogether sure about the wisdom of the Shrek Clip [daughter brings her bloke home for first time, and father gets very angry] Fortunately Mark didn't take it personally!

In the afternoon,Bob took Steph and Mark to the station and I went to the service at the Blind Home. Steve led it brilliantly on the theme of Treasure. Then I raced back to the United Service 'One World Week' at St Barts. Yes, we are ahead of everyone else who celebrate OWW NEXT week - but here in Kirby Muxloe we like to be individuals! Bob preached on Psalm 24.

Home at last - and phonecalls to daughters and from my brother. Fell asleep watching "Frost"

Then up early today for a week in school.Hope the rest of my week with this class goes as well as today. We are looking at Poetry in literacy, and today's poem was 'The Lion and Albert'. The kids loved that - and were astounded that I knew it by heart.

Now some more planning and then off to knitting. After which I shall come home, and like the lion, I plan to lie "in a somnolent posture"!!

Little Miss Busy

Don't you just love the Roger Hargreaves characters? I was queuing in Borders today behind a child who'd just discovered a new Mr Men book she had not read, and was asking her Mum [extremely politely] if she could spend her birthday money on it, please?

Most of this week I have felt like Little Miss Busy - but tonight I am tending towards being Mr Grumpy. It is probably a good thing that Bob is planning a family service about Anger on Sunday!

I was trying to do the final preparations for a Seminar I am leading, and realised our flip chart easel was at the Church. Bob kindly fetched it home for me.

It is a very good easel [well, it was, once] but some kind souls have written all over the drywipe surface with indelible pens. It seems to be irrevocably stained now - and we have tried every solvent known to man or woman but to no avail. It still functions as an easel for a flip chart pad - but can no longer be used as a drywipe board. Some of the writing appears to have had some purpose - but "Hello!" and the black star, and the big pink blob are just mindless, pointless graffiti.

I know it is only 'stuff' and that people are more important than possessions. I know that if I am happy [and 99% of the time I am] to share my possessions with others, particularly when it is for use in the Lord's Work, I mustn't be upset if things occasionally get damaged. I know that tonight I am incredibly tired after a long and emotionally draining week, and I am therefore over-reacting. But the fact remains that this easel was given to us personally, as a gift, by someone who felt we needed it - and the replacement cost of this particular model is around £170.

I must try and get things into perspective -  many people this week have lost their jobs, their life savings, or dear family members.

I think I need a serious injection of Divine Grace, to get me back on track to being Little Miss Sunshine!

An Autumn Prayer

Lord

There is so much happening

in our world right now.

In the midst of it all,

it's so good to know You're in control,

Your love is never-ending,

and You provide for us.

As the trees turn colours,

and the nights grow cooler,

may we be reminded

that every season of our lives

is part of Your loving plan.

[from the Dayspring website]

Fruits of my labours

I meant to take the camera to church yesterday and photograph my screen curtain. It did a good job, hanging over the ugly legs of the Back Projection Screen, and obscuring the sandbags which were adding stability. But I had too much else to think about. I never photographed the flower arrangements either. I got a lovely assortment of blooms [From Sainsburys, who are very reliable] which included some 'ornamental cabbages' on long stalks. As I explained to Bob, Peter's sermons were not only beautiful to listen to, they were also spiritually nourishing!

I am persevering with my diet, to the amusement of friends yesterday - they were all tucking into Christine's Pork Pies and Millionaire's Shortbread, whilst I munched on carrot and celery sticks.

As well as cooking apples, I was also given a watermelon this week. I bought some grapes and oranges as well.

The flowers [in my Mum's tiny silver miniature rosebowl] are the ones which remain from the bouquet Sarah and Marion gave me on the September 8th.

I am intrigued that they have lasted for well over 4 weeks.

What is it that Tesco's do to their blooms?

I suspect that they have been treated in some way with preservative. I know Steph feels I am quite irrational in being unduly suspicious about Tesco's!

A Right Royal Occasion

I am not sure if Baptists do "State Funerals" - but if they do,then we certainly witnessed one for Peter Grange yesterday.

The well-oiled KMFC Team swung into action with military precision,  and everyone worked together to make sure all went smoothly. The Chair Shifters were on hand the moment Playgroup ended to set up the Large Hall, the Caterers were in the kitchen, Mike and his AVA team were all over the place, the Car Park attendants marshalled vehicles into the their parking spots, the Stewards were meeting and greeting - and afterwards all these people stayed to put everything back into the right place for Sunday. Peter was greatly loved and respected here - as a Pastor and friend - and we all wanted to do our very best. Bob and I are both so grateful for all the support and prayers we have received in such a busy week.

Our own folk here have been fabulous, and we have had phone messages and emails of encouragement  from friends all over the country. Thankyou, everyone

If you want to know who came, pick any page in the Baptist Handbook, and somebody on that page was probably there. What is the correct collective noun for a large group of Regional Ministers? (No Dianne, I don't think it is 'nightmare'!) The huge congregation was not only ' Didcot Bigshots', but also ordinary folk from all over the country, whose lives had been touched by Peter's ministry and friendship. It was truly a celebration of a life well lived for Jesus.

All those who spoke gave tribute to Peter's life, laughter, and love - and above all, his great faith, not only through his final illness, but throughout his whole life - when his over-riding desire was to share the Good News of Jesus.

Bob is just about to go and conduct the service for the committal of the ashes, and I pray that this quiet moment  of reflection and 'goodbye' for Janet, Rachel and Suzanne, away from the buzz of yesterday, will be a time of blessing for them.

"Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord"

"The memory of the just is blessed"

We will miss you so much, Peter

Words for the Week

The Washington Post's Mensa Invitational once again asked readers to take ANY word from the dictionary, alter it by adding subtracting, or changing ONE letter, and supply a NEW definition. Here are some of this year's winners. None of them get through spellcheck.
1. Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until
you realize it was your money to start with.
2. Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.
3. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period.
4. Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.
5. Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you're running late.
6. Karmageddon: It's like, when everybody is sending off all these like, really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer. 
7. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into   your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out

[Thanks to Amazing Grace for these]

Mary v. Martha

I misheard Irene, when she led devotions at our meeting last week. I thought she said "I was born to be a MARTYR" but she actually said "MARTHA" We had a speaker from Age Concern, explaining about Home Helps etc, and she was very interesting. Irene read us a poem too, and Margaret kindly supplied me with a copy. I shall share it with you - and then leave the computer and return to housekeeping!

DUST IF YOU MUST

Dust if you must, but wouldn't it be better

To paint a picture, write a letter

Bake a cake, or plant a seed

Ponder the difference between want and need.

Dust if you must, but there's not much time

With rivers to swim, and mountains to climb

Music to hear and books to read

Friends to cherish and life to lead

Dust if you must, but the world's out there

The sun in your eyes and the wind in your hair

A flurry of snow, a shower of rain

This day will not come round again

Dust if you must, but bear in mind

Old age will come, and it's not very kind,

And when you go, as go you must,

You yourself will make more dust!

Pain Quotidien

PQ is a wonderful chain of eating places - it started in Belgium about 6 years ago. Checkout their British website. I have been thinking a lot about 'our daily bread' recently. Partly because of the GP putting me on a diet, I admit, but also through a number of reminders of God's amazing provision for us every single day,in the most unexpected ways. So often He does not give us just our daily bread, but also butter and jam on it too. Not that I have eaten any butter for ages now!

Yesterday I spent a bot of time on the sewing machine,preparing more Christmas gifts.

The intended recipients don't read this blog, [I hope] so I am posting pictures! I began with some sheeting and IKEA baskets.

Then I made liners for the baskets.

Then finally I took the puddings and marmalade made last week, and a pack of Fairtrade Tea - and there's some Christmas gifts sorted...

I shall have to put some tissue in, to stop things sliding about, and then cover with cellophane and tie with a ribbon.

My other sewing yesterday included finishing off Bob's PA screen curtain. Despite the metric/imperial mix-up, it has turned out fine. I finished off the evening sewing up some lavender bags for my good friend Debbie. She is a gifted cross-stitcher and makes some lovely things, including bags filled with her own home-grown lavender. Not having a sewing machine herself, it saves her no end of time if I do the final stage of bag-making on mine. The dining room smells wonderfully of lavender now.

Steph gets home tomorrow night, so I must put away all the sewing stuff which is strewn all over her bed, then get myself ready for the Ladies Fellowship this afternoon.

The Patience of Job

Is anyone else out there using Scripture Union "Daily Notes"? I feel as if I have been struggling with the book of Job for MONTHS!! Most memorably, the day I was stuck in a tent in Ireland, in a rainstorm of biblical proportions, when that day's reading was headed "The worst day of my life"

It has been utterly wonderful in this past week to have started a new section - working through Thessalonians.

The notes have been prepared by Derek Tidball - Baptist Minister, and husband of our Regional Minister Dianne. What I love especially is the way you can tell that these notes have been prepared by a proper preacher! Derek really helps you to get the meat out of the passage, and it sets me up well for the day ahead.

Liz named her first ever guinea pig Derek Tidball - but that is another story.

We've had a great Sunday, with good attendance this morning, despite the weather. Two good sermons, visitors in the congregation, a gift of some cooking apples this morning, and this evening, some Cherry Pie for the Pastor's Supper. Plus some lovely conversations with people about faith and growth in grace.

Bob had to announce another death/funeral today - but [as usual] the fellowship is being wonderfully supportive, particularly regarding arrangements for Peter's Thanksgiving on Thursday.

Christmas is Coming!

Thanks to Catriona for alerting me to the new video from the Churches Advertising Network.

Imperial Guard

Imperial is definitely my Word of the Week! Thursday morning, I had to teach some 5 year olds about "Instruction Texts" [how to fill a bath, how to make gingerbread etc] and these poor little things have to learn about "Imperative Verbs". They are actually supposed to KNOW the word 'imperative'! We are allowed to explain it as 'bossy words' - so I ended up making up a story about The Very Bossy Emperor [fortunately they knew an emperor was 'a sort of a King']

Yesterday and today I have been sewing again - making replacement bits for my friend's classroom calendar. The children attach the day/date/month/year with Velcro. Except she has had the calendar for a while, and the last 'year' is 2008. Also, somehow a '1' and 'February' have gone missing. So I embroidered some spare pieces and they are already to deliver to her at church tomorrow.

This is the second of these calendars for which I have provided replacements. I think they came from M&S - perhaps I should get them to put up a sign "If you lose a month, please ring this number..."

I did this on my wonderful embroidery machine.

It is a Janome Memorycraft 300E and I have had it for a few years now.It certainly earns its keep.

I noticed that the new John Lewis in Leicester have the next model up.I asked what the differences/ improvements were. The demonstrator said she didn't know - she was sorry but she didn't know anything about the machines! I am afraid the new JL haberdashery department is a real disappointment to me in this respect - I had hoped the staff would know something about sewing. I'm not the only person to have discovered this.

Button Boutique, on the other hand, not only know their stuff, but are generous enough to send you to the right place when they haven't got what you want. Yesterday's trip was to buy large press studs, for another bit of Bob's PA Kit. He has a large back projection screen, which he is lending to the church next week [Peter's funeral will be attended by lots of people, so we are having a live video link to the Church hall] However, the screen is on ugly metal legs, and Bob felt that what he needed was a black curtain to hang below the screen.

There is a row of studs there already, for you to pop a curtain in place, and you can buy this as an accessory. At a price. On the other hand, providing you can find the right size studs, and your wife just happens to have the appropriate black fabric lurking in The Great Stash, you could always have one made.

BB had no studs which fitted [yes, I took the folded screen into the shop to check] but directed me to the cobblers across the way, who did. So I handed over my £5.50 for the eleven studs. [Ten, plus a spare in case we go wrong!]

Today I measured and cut the fabric, sewed on the tape to strengthen the top edge, and started marking the positions for the studs. Except I measured in IMPERIAL units, and then converted to centimetres [and somehow made a calculation error]. Bob had suggested allowing a bit of 'give' between the poppers. He returned from doing something at church just as I discovered it wasn't right, and was panicking that I had cut the fabric too small. Fortunately I had been over-generous in my 'giving allowance' and it was all OK in the end. We will leave the actual hole-making, stud-fixing operation to Monday, when I am calmer and we can work on it together. I am so much happier with inches than with metric measurements.

"Somehow I feel this is my fault, for voting for us to enter the Common Market" said Bob. It is, of course - but I forgive him for this indiscretion in his unregenerate youth.

Imperial units are much more satisfying. To lose one pound in weight sounds better than to lose .454 kg!

Some of us have work to do!

I spent the morning at a meeting and then doing the follow-up admin. This afternoon [following a brief dash to Button Boutique for more haberdashery] I cut out ten aprons for the girls to sew up at Sewing Club. They are really keen to do something for "Children In Need", and Susan and I realised that if we didn't prepare the pieces, they would never get them done!

Here are the fruits of my labours, neatly cut out and pinned together in tidy parcels - one large apron piece folded round the pocket/ties/ ruffle etc.

My daughter Liz, on the other hand, appears to have spent part of her day playing about on the Internet. She has put MY blog into some programme or other, which makes it look like it was written by the Swedish chef. So now it contains gems like

"Zee sermun slut ves a teeny beet lunger thun I ves unteecipeting"

Poor child, I think proximity to Mayor Boris is turning her brain!

Prawn to Be Wild

Here is a picture of my evening meal. A healthy pink and green prawn salad. For lunch I had one third of a small tub of [low fat] hummus, and a box of crudités - carefully cut sticks of carrot, cucumber and celery etc. Followed by an orange. Yesterday was similar. My GP told me ten days ago that I have exceedingly high cholesterol - and has given me till Christmas to get that [and my weight] down, through diet and exercise. For the last ten days I have been following a strict very low-fat GI diet.

I even managed six hours [six HOURS!] at the church last week,surrounded by cream cakes, chocolate cakes and other delights, for the Christian Aid tea party - and I did not eat a CRUMB!Every morning I spend at least 5 minutes on the rowing machine.

Bob is being wonderfully encouraging, and sharing many of the low fat meals with me [though I did suggest he had cheese sandwiches for lunch yesterday when I was out] I know this is important for my health. But it is VERY DIFFICULT.

I am being incredibly disciplined - but I am beginning to feel like a tired salad [green and limp as opposed to crisp and fresh!]

To misquote Tennyson

"I am half sick of salads" said the Lady of Shalott 

I had a good day at school though - greatly amused by a child designing a Christmas card, who told me "I am drawing a picture of baby Jesus lying in the crate"

Out of the Mouths...

The kids were great at the Harvest Festival yesterday. Bob had this idea that they should go out during the sermon and produce something to display at the end of the service. Then he left me to implement it!

Those in the 11+ group used the time to prepare for next Sunday's Youth Event - and the remainder [post toddler] came with me, and two great helpers, Kara and Deb into the Small Hall.

We began by practising the Harvest Thank you from the BMS resources CD. I'd prepared a series of 7 pictures [world, field, wheat, flour, bread, meal, "today"] and the children held up each in turn, whilst we read a poem. Each verse added an extra line [ a bit like The house That Jack Built} "This is the bread that is made from the flour that is cooked by the baker, from the wheat that is ground by the miller that grows in the field that is part of the world that God made" etc.

Then we made ears of corn and coloured in letters and stuck them onto a banner which we carried in at the end off the service.

The sermon slot was a tiny bit longer than I was anticipating [not complaining here - I hadn't anticipated the intercessions and hymn!]so I decided we would have an extra prayer time ourselves.

"We collected lots of tins of food this morning. Where are the tins going, can anyone tell me?"

"To the playground in Tanzania"

"Err, no, not Africa. Alex and Tom did show us their video this morning, but that's not where the tins are going"

"To the middle!"

"Sorry? what did you say?"

"To the middle of Leicester"

"That's right!" said Debs, who had worked it out "You mean THE CENTRE PROJECT in Leicester!"

Centre/Middle/it's all the same when you are only 7!

I suggested we should also pray for baby Charis, born the day before -and the youngest child in the group, only 5, said "She has breathing difficulties" Which amazed me - that fact had been mentioned once, briefly, in the notices at the start of the service. Many adults do not listen to the notices, and yet this little dot had taken in the fact of the new baby's needs.

A Stitch In Time

Last Monday, I discovered a new crafts and haberdashery shop, and bought this little DMC purse.

It was less than £2, and I thought it might make a good birthday gift for my favourite Aunt.

On Saturday evening, I sketched out a design, using one of my Jo Verso cross stitch books. I find that working out a design on graph paper is a very relaxing activity.

 

I have a number of books by the late Jo Verso, and they are brilliant for ideas for cards and small gifts.

She uses simple ideas and her diagrams are easy to follow and adapt.

On Sunday afternoon, [after a hectic morning service] while Bob watched the Grand Prix, I stitched the purse.

It was very therapeutic, and I was really pleased with the result.

Inside I cut a piece of white fabric to shape and stitched it neatly round to line the side with the back of the embroidery. All ready for Auntie Peg's birthday next month!

A very dear friend

Peter Grange died this evening. Bob has already posted so I won't add much more. I shall miss his wise counsel, gifted preaching, and good friendship. My thoughts and prayers are with Janet, Rachel and Suzanne.

I wish I wasn't so Fubsy!

According to a recent article in the Times, Collins are planning to remove some little used words from their dictionaries, to make room for more modern ones [credit crunch, sub-prime, etc] This seems such a shame to me.

I shall endeavour to learn, and then use a few of them in conversation. Of course, I shall speak with mansuetude, and avoid being oppugnant!

But for now, I shall return to abstergent activities in the kitchen, and make the hob nitid.

I believe passionately in developing a good vocabulary and encouraging my pupils to do the same.

Abstergent Cleansing or scouring

Agrestic Rural; rustic; unpolished; uncouth

Apodeictic Unquestionably true by virtue of demonstration

Caducity Perishableness; senility

Caliginosity Dimness; darkness

Compossible Possible in coexistence with something else

Embrangle To confuse or entangle

Exuviate To shed (a skin or similar outer covering)

Fatidical Prophetic

Fubsy Short and stout; squat

Griseous Streaked or mixed with grey; somewhat grey

Malison A curse

Mansuetude Gentleness or mildness

Muliebrity The condition of being a woman

Niddering Cowardly

Nitid Bright; glistening

Olid Foul-smelling

Oppugnant Combative, antagonistic or contrary

Periapt A charm or amulet

Recrement Waste matter; refuse; dross

Roborant Tending to fortify or increase strength

Skirr A whirring or grating sound, as of the wings of birds in flight

Vaticinate To foretell; prophesy

Vilipend To treat or regard with contempt